If you live in Nashville, there is a decent chance someone is praying for you right now.

Roughly 40,000 people from more than 400 Christian churches are working together to pray for everyone by name in the city and surrounding communities, said Dave Clayton, the founding pastor of Ethos Church.

"It's hard to get churches to eat barbecue together," Clayton said. "So to do something spiritual has been amazing."

Awaken Nashville, a month of unified prayer for everyone in the city, started with a kickoff event at the Ryman Auditorium on Sunday, Jan. 27.(Photo11: Jeb - Nashville Photography Group)

The effort is called Awaken Nashville. It is an initiative born out of idea that came to Clayton and his wife and is considered to be a citywide movement of unified prayer and fasting. Awaken Nashville started Jan. 27 with a kickoff event at the Ryman Auditorium and will wrap up on Feb. 24.

How are they doing it?

A variety of churches are participating, Clayton said. Some have joined as the weeks progress and word of Awaken Nashville spreads, he said.

Each participant received a prayer warrior packet that included a unique list of 15 specific people to pray for during the month, as well as their addresses and postcards to mail them. The packet also came with instructions, a daily prayer guide and a short book on prayer and fasting.

"We're praying for every household in the city by name, basically praying through the phone book across the city and hoping to write a handwritten note to every person in the city just letting them know they're loved by God," Clayton said.

Since they are relying on publicly listed phone records,they are likely missing people, but have tried to supplement by gathering the names of college students, unlisted immigrants, those experiencing homelessness and those currently incarcerated.

Awaken Nashville is a citywide movement of prayer and fasting.(Photo11: Submitted photo)

What is the point?

The goal is to have people encounter God's goodness, Clayton said.

"For us, there's just this kind of deep conviction that it starts in just praying — praying for people," Clayton said. "We've got a really deep prayer culture in our church. We've seen God do a lot of neat things and we thought, 'Let's try to extend that to the city.'"

But Ethos Church could not blanket the city in prayer in such a strategic way on their own, Clayton said. So he spent the time leading up to the event building relationships with area church leaders and asking their congregations to join in the effort.

"This is a lot of churches carrying this together," Clayton said. "It's because we love the city. It's just one simple way we're trying to serve people."

Reach Holly Meyer at hmeyer@tennessean.com or 615-259-8241 and on Twitter @HollyAMeyer.